Champs return home

Martinsburg crushes H.D. Woodson for second win

September 3, 2011

MARTINSBURG -Logan Jenkins sports a nasty-looking scar on his forehead.

The linebacker can smile about that battle wound sustained sometime prior to Friday night, particularly when he climbed to the top of Martinsburg's career tackling leaders.

So can his Martinsburg defensive teammates after they inflicted plenty of pain, leaving visiting H.D. Woodson, D.C., all black and blue on Friday night at Cobourn Field during s 48-0 win by the defending Class AAA state champion Bulldogs - their 16th straight victory.

Article Video

High school football

More impressive, though, was the effort by the defensive crew in holding Woodson to 49 yards in total offense while recording its third straight shutout.

Martinsburg intercepted three passes, including one by Chris Perkins returned 44 yards for a touchdown.

"That's good, that's great," said Jenkins, who estimated he had 15 tackles to eclipse the school record of Nate Sowers. "It's good to have a shutout, because it makes it feel like the defense is there."

Article Photos

Journal photo by Ron AgnirMartinsburg wide receiver Cedric Brown reaches the end zone during the Bulldogs’ 48-0 win over H.D. Woodson on Friday.

So was Martinsburg's offense after scoring just a single touchdown in a season-opening win over Sherando, Va., a week ago.

The Bulldogs produced 336 yards in total offense and produced six of their seven total touchdowns.

Quarterback Brandon Ashenfelter ran 14 yards for a touchdown and then connected on a 30-yard pass play with Cedric Brown for a second TD, giving the Bulldogs a 15-0 lead after two series.

Seth Vanorsdale bulled 2 yards for a score, making it 28-0 at halftime, and Justin Arndt had scoring runs of 10, 4 and 2 yards in the second half.

Brown and Vanorsdale also had interceptions for Martinsburg, which held two Woodson quarterbacks to 1 of 9 passing for minus-7 yards.

"We can be as good as we want to be (on defense)," said Brown, who got tracked down on a 70-yard kickoff return to begin the second half. "We have to have great practices, work hard every week. We can't take anybody for granted."

Brown said the Bulldogs weren't sure what to see from Woodson, which was opening its season and has a pair of players who have already committed to Division I schools for next year.

"They're very athletic," Martinsburg coach David Walker said. "We didn't know what to expect; we knew they were city champs (three years in a row). They have three or four Division I athletes.

"But our guys were relentless. They weren't overwhelmed by the talent of the city team. We have talent, too."

As well as a reputation to uphold after limiting teams to less than eight points per game during their championship run of 2010 and now beginning this season with eight scoreless quarters.

"After this win, everyone feels like we're taking a step forward every day of the week, not taking any steps back," Jenkins said.

The Martinsburg defense stepped it up right away after deferring on the opening kickoff.

Three plays went for negative yardage, though one was negated by an illegal block penalty, and then Darian Patterson had a nice breakup of a pass.

The next offensive series for Woodson ended when Vanorsdale dove for an interception as the Bulldogs blew up Woodson's screen play. Then Brown intercepted a pass on Woodson's third series.

On and on it went for the rest of the night.

"They realized how big and important this game was," Walker said.

Perkins finished with 68 yards rushing on six carries and Arndt had 64 on 14 tries. Ashenfelter completed 5 of 8 passes for 80 yards with one interception.

About the only thing that really went wrong for Martinsburg were several low snaps or mishandled snaps on point-after kicks. Three times the Bulldogs fought that issue.

"I thought we made fewer mistakes tonight than we did last week," Walker said.

There was no mistaking the effort of the Martinsburg defense during another impressive display.